The Lessons Our Infra Push Can Learn From The IT Sector

Livemint     3rd March 2021     Save    

Context: While the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and increased Budget outlay in 2021-22 offer great impetus to the infrastructure sector, the onus is now on implementation agencies to upgrade capabilities.

Budget 2021 emphasis on infrastructure sector

  • Declared one of the six pillars vital for India’s growth story.
  • Given a significant allocation of Rs 5.54 trillion, a sizeable increase of 34.5% (over the previous year)
  • Announcement of 7,400 projects planned for the country’s Rs 111 trillion NIP.

Challenges

  • Execution at scale: To execute ideas and proposals on the ground on time.
  • Culture of delays: Around 578 infrastructure projects were delayed and the average time overrun more than three years. - Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
  • Capacity gap: Implementation agencies lack knowledge and capability to execute at scale and time.
    • More than 25,000 capable project managers will be required to deliver NIP.

Solutions: lessons to be learned from IT industry

  • De-bottlenecking of financing needs
  • Digital supervision and sustained monitoring of progress:
    • E.g. UK has launched Project Delivery Capability Framework that clearly articulates the competencies and subsequent development plans needed by such professionals.
    • Capability Maturity Model (CMM), a five-level process improvement framework has become the hallmark of the tech industry. Every large IT company (Infosys) in India has achieved CMM level 5.
    • India needs to finalize a unified Project Management Model (PMM) (with the states) to drive step changes in project execution capabilities of its implementation agencies.
  • Innovation in procurement processes
  • Upgrading the capacity of the workforce:
    • Creating new entities that may hire private-sector talent.
    • Launch a skilling/certification programme on Mission Karamyogi platform for capability-creation.
    • Involve existing top performers among project managers, in delivery of experience-based training and also plugging talent gaps with private-sector recruits.
    • Devise a mechanism to identify, develop and accelerate career paths of good project managers.
    • Communicate expectations actively with private-sector and stakeholders.